UKIPT Newcastle Won By Chris Ferguson
September 11, 2012 11:12 amChris Ferguson has won the UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) Newcastle Main Event, after defeating a field of 623 players over 5 days to lift the title, and collect the £87,640 ($139,208) first place prize.
However, unlike his 5 times WSOP braceleted infamous namesake, this poker playing Chris Ferguson is just 23 years of age and hails from Edinburgh. The Scotsman’s victory at Aspers in Newcastle also represents the lion’s share of his live tournaments cashes which now stands at $142,205.
As the £700 tournament reached its last day of play, Chris Ferguson (2.04m) was lying in 2nd place behind Jack Sambrook (2.41m) in pole position, with 2011 October Niner Sam Holden (1.12m) also at the eight man final table.
However, within an hour of play Chris Ferguson had lost half of his stack, including losing a 445k race holding A-K to his short-stacked opponent’s A-9, but later managed to double up a couple of times to remain in contention. By the time the table had been reduced to just four hopefuls, the players lined up as follows:
1: Alex Jobling 3.22m
2: David Knight 2.1m
3: Sam Holden 1.845m
4: Chris Ferguson 1.29m
Next out was David Knight in 4th (£28,780), whose A-10 shove ran into the As-Ks of Alex Jobling, and after Chris Ferguson (A-Q) eliminated Sam Holden (A-5) in 3rd (£39,030), the heads-up phase of the competition got underway with Alex Jobling holding a 2 to 1 advantage over Ferguson.
Nevertheless, after losing a third of his stack, fortune favoured Chris Ferguson who then doubled-up holding 9s-5s (38%) to Jobling’s A-K and after Ferguson all but evened the chips, a deal was struck that would see the players share the prize money but play for an extra £10,000 and the UKIPT title.
Twenty minutes later, Ferguson (7h-4h) flopped a flush against Jobling’s pocket sevens to grab a more than 2 to 1 chip advantage, and a few hands later the tournament was decided after Ferguson’s pocket eights held fast against Alex Jobling’s Ah-Qh to close out the match. Commenting on his victory, Chris Ferguson said:
“I doubted myself at quite a few stages. But when I got to heads-up I was more confident about winning.”
The final table payouts were as follows:
1. Christopher Ferguson – £87,640
2. Alexander Jobling – £82,120
3. Sam Holden – £39,030
4. David Knight – £28,780
5. Ewan Brown – £22,240
6. Anthony Shields – £17,880
7. Jack Sambrook – £13,520
8. Dan Hemingway – £10,250